Internet ecosystem; Big data could help the environment in China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-05-17

A worker at a sewage treatment plant in Liuzhou, Guangxi, June 7, 2014

(File photo/Xinhua)

The capital market has recently taken note of the realizable value of environmental information as the age of big data for environmental information has arrived with the potential to help resolve environmental issues via the application of big data in China, Shanghai's China Business News reports.

Beijing Jinkong Automatic Technology Co is offering its more than 100 corporate clients a platform of data mines related to water plants, water-related enterprises and companies offering services, products and technologies, which will share all kinds of information via the platform, said Jinkong chair Yang Bin.

Via the platform, sewage treatment plants can know beforehand whether equipment should be replaced and other related information via monitoring so equipment providers can step in in a timely manner, Yang said.

On April 3, the State Council published the key points for the opening of government information, which called for the further opening of information related to air and water quality, pollutant emissions and sources of pollution, among others.

The capital Beijing has already followed the national standard to release quarterly the results of its monitoring of state-owned enterprises, beginning to release the data on 27 main polluting companies and listed enterprises from early 2015.

CITIC Securities, in a recent report about the internet and big data for environment, said the government's overall controls related to environmental quality, monitoring of pollutants and reduced emissions will help expand the internet for environmental protection, transform equipment sales to resolution projects, as well as further the connection of environmental consultancy and follow-up work.

Moreover, the government is likely to accelerate the promotion of emissions trading, a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving emissions reductions.

The nature of the internet is to connect with everything, and only via sharing and opening can the industry establish a real ecosystem, said Yang. He said however that before a big data system is established, some fundamental problems such as standard procedures must be followed closely.

Kflow Environmental Technology Co has set up water quality monitoring into its water purifiers and has sent these monitoring results via Wi-Fi to cloud platforms, making its water purifier not only a product but also a monitoring facility, according to its chairperson Yan Ling.